The invention relates to a child""s seat, especially for mobile use in an aircraft.
Great attention has been paid in recent decades to the safety of children when transporting them in automobiles. Corresponding legal initiatives have led to the fact that children, especially infants, can today be transported in a child""s seat that can considerably reduce the risk of injury to the child in the event of an accident.
As a rule, these types of child seats remain fixed to the vehicle""s seat. Seats for infants have in recent years have also frequently been disposed opposite the direction of travel, whereby they can also be fixed to the passenger seat, so that during travel the child can be easily observed by the driver.
On the other hand, when transporting children in commercial aircraft special children""s seats are the exception. Basically, is indeed also possible to effix child seats from automobiles to flight passenger seats, however these types of child seats are as a rule not suited for this purpose for reasons of size and because of their weight. Furthermore, they seldom meet the safety requirements of the flight safety institutions.
Known from EP 0526719 A1 is a contrivance for construction of child seats where a child""s seat is affixed to the backside of a partition of the flight passenger cabin. The disadvantage of such a system lies especially in the fact that the arrangement is permanently installed and requires considerable space.
Known from DE-GM 9202597.8 is a foldable child""s seat that can be fixed on a regular passenger seat with the usually available belts. Folding the child""s seat is done with a relatively complex lever rod. A child""s seat of this type is fixed in the devotion of flight. However, since for safety reasons it is desired, for infants, to arrange child seats opposite to the direction of flight, the known child""s seat is not suited for this.
The object of the invention is to furnish a child""s seat, especially for mobile use in an aircraft, that can be fixed on a passenger seat selectably in the direction of or opposed to travel, that can be easily folded into a compact unit, that is light in weight, can be easily stored in the aircraft, and that is suitable for smaller as well as bigger children. This objective is satisfied by the invention given in Claim 1. Advantageous further developments of the invention are given in the subclaims.
Starting from a child""s seat with a support frame that can be fixed on a vehicle or aircraft passenger seat by means of a belt, to which are fixed in articulated fashion a seat pan and a back pan, and the support frame having a locking means for adjusting the child seat in a particular sitting position, the invention is characterized by the fact that the lateral lower ends of the back pan are displacebly supported in lateral guide of the support frame, that the back pan is fixable (lockable) in an upright position relative to the support frame with the aid of the locking means, whereby, after release of the locking means, the back pan can be displaced in the guides of the support frame, and that the seat pan that is fixed in articulated fashion at the lower end of the back pan can be folded against the back pan.
Hence, the child""s seat in accordance with the invention is foldable as well as displaceable in the support frame. Obtained in this manner after folding is a compact unit that can accordingly be accommodated in space-saving manner in the aircraft. The support frame forms not only the base for the back and seat paths but also the basic structure of the child""s seat with which the seat is fixed on the aircraft seat. Besides, the support frame forms a covering for the seat cushion when stowing the seat.
Preferably, the support frame is of U-shaped cross section and displays laterally projecting arms in which are formed the guides in which the back pan is displaceable. The guides are, in particular, constructed as slot-like cutouts of the lateral arms of the support frame, which run parallel to the floor surface of the support frame. Therewith, the back pan can be almost completely pushed into the support frame, and after the seat pan is folded onto the cushion of the back pan there results the proposed compact unit.
To simplify handling, the lower ends of the back pan are preferably guided through a roller bearing into the slot-like cutouts of the support frame.
In another embodiment of the invention, the locking means, in the locked position of the back pan, engage in at least one of the lateral arms of the support frame, whereby the engagement position of the locking means is disposed at some distance from the bearing location of the back pan in the support frame.
By this measure, obtained for the back pan are two fixing points; namely support of the lower end of the back pan in the lateral guides and, further, a locking means in each case arranged at some distance therefrom, which in another embodiment of the invention is also fixable in different positions. After release of the locking means, the back pan can be moved along the roller bearing-means in the support frame.
The locking means is preferably constructed as a lever-arm-actuated, spring-loaded stop pin that engages into a stop cutout of a lateral arm of the support frame. Advantageously disposed on either side of the seat is a stop pin, which can be actuated at the same time by a lever management.
The stop pin can assume the lock function, and at the same time take over a guidance function if the step pin displays an axial region of large diameter for engagement into the stop cutout of a lateral arm of the support frame, as well as an axial region of smaller diameter that is displaceable in the guide slot of the lateral arm of the support frame, whereby the width of the guide slot is narrower than the diameter of the stop cutout, and the stop cutout and the guide slot fade into each other. Therefore, if the stop pin with its larger diameter is pressed out of the stop cutout, the stop function is released and the back pan can be pushed against the support frame. However, since the stop pin remains with its smaller diameter in the guide slot adjoining the stop cutout, the back pan can move only in accordance with the configuration of the guide slot in conjunction with the guidance through the roller bearing-means, so that the movement of the back pan relative to the support frame is forcefully executed. If several stop positions with stop cutouts are provided along the guide slot, the stop pin can engage with its larger diameter in any whatever stop positions, in each case in the stop cutout, so that different fixed positions of the back pan can be achieved. In particular, stop cutouts are in any case provided at both ends of the guide slot, so that the back pan, in the first position of the stop pin assumes the normal position of use at the back end of the guide slot, and in the second position at the forward end of the guide slot assumes the fully pushed in position in the support frame, in which the child""s seat is transportable and can be stowed in a compact fashion. Advantageously, the guide slot and the guiding means in the lateral arms run essentially parallel to one another and to the plane of the floor plate of the support frame. Hence, the child""s seat can be pushed into the support frame in drawer fashion.
The seat pan, relative to the back pan, is preferably adjustable in locking fashion, whereby by means of several locking positions different seating angles between back pan and seat pan can be obtained.
In order to be able to use the child""s seat for somewhat bigger children, the seat pan is advantageously constructed in two pieces, whereby disposed in an articulated manner at the lower end of the back pan is a seat part, and at the front end of the seat part a support part. The linkage between seat part and support that is, in particular, adjustable in several stop positions, so that the child""s shins and feet can assume a comfortable position. In the case of bigger children, it has been established to fix the child""s seat in the flight direction, while for small children an arrangement in the direction opposite to flight is preferred.
In another embodiment of the invention, provision can be made to arrange a panel on the front edge or also at a side edge and joined in an articulated manner with the seat pan, the panel being usable as a play table for small children. This panel in the folded condition of the child""s seat can run in the direction of the seat pan, without it taking up additional space when stowing the child""s seat.
Securing the child in the child""s seat is preferably done by means of a 5-point belt.